Architecture notes.

Iit Hosts Series Of Architects' Lectures

February 23, 1995|By Blair Kamin, Tribune Architecture Critic.

They may not be rock star types who pull in standing-room-only crowds, but some leading figures from the world of architecture and urban design are likely to ease our mid-winter blues and stretch our minds in the next few weeks.

Distinguished Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta, known for his lyrical houses and colorful commercial complexes, speaks at the Illinois Institute of Technology at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hermann Hall Auditorium, 3241 S. Federal St. His topic is "Buildings and Concepts."

Other speakers in IIT's spring lecture series include Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman at 5:30 p.m. March 22 at Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Crown Hall, 3360 S. State St., which may strike some as an ironic location for a Tigerman talk.

In 1978, then under the spell of postmodernism, Tigerman created a photo-collage that depicted Crown Hall as a Titanic-like ship sinking into the sea. The implication of the collage was clear enough: Miesian modernism was going under as well, an observation that did not endear Tigerman to Miesians on the IIT faculty.

The other noteworthy speaker in the series-the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, Allan Temko-lectures at 5:30 p.m. March 29 at Perlstein Hall, 10 W. 33rd St.

Admission to all the lectures is free. Call 312-567-3263.

- It's easy to dismiss the issue for Friends of Downtown's March 2 meeting-the design of downtown elevated train stations for the Chicago Transit Authority-as about as exciting as filling a pothole. But think about it for a second.

The stations are an amenity that can make waiting for the "L" a pleasure or a pain. Their look influences on how people perceive public transportation-and whether they use it. And the stations have visual impact on the urban environment.

All this matters because Chicago's transportation department is planning to remodel or rebuild five downtown CTA stations, according to the non-profit Friends of Downtown. Discussing design guidelines for the stations will be Stan Kaderbak, chief engineer of bridges and transit in the Chicago Department of Transportation, and Harry Hirsch, the CTA's vice president of planning.

- Not the City Beautiful, but the City Multiple: Edward Robbins, a teacher at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, will speak on "Multiple Cities: Fragmentation and Difference in Contemporary Urbanity," at 8 a.m. March 2 at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 4 W. Burton Pl.